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Originally posted by tw
Why did the WTC towers collapse? They remained standing when struck. The answer to that question is pragmatic.
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The towers collapsed because their load-bearing members were bathed in flaming jet fuel by militant extremists. So what? Engineers could surely design a highrise office tower to withstand that sort of punishment, but no one could afford to build one. So why bother?
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Should the WTC be rebuilt? A question that begs a more pragmatic answer.
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The pragmatic answer is: "Of course they'll be rebuilt." Suddenly, there's a tremendous shortage of Class A office space in lower Manhattan. The real estate market will not tolerate this disparity between supply and demand for long.
Besides... the owner of the site (the Port Authority) faces a tremendous incentive to rebuild: only ONE of the WTC towers was insured. They need the revenue that leasing office space will provide. Their risk management people (correctly and pragmatically) advised them to insure against the most PROBABLE risk, not the most DANGEROUS risk. One tower? Sure. Both towers? Inconceivable!
Expect RFP's for architectural design not less than six months after the last truckload of debris leaves the site.